Growth hormone is good at shrinking visceral fat

The metabolic effects of growth hormone in adipose tissue.

Chaves VE, Júnior FM, Bertolini GL.

Source

Laboratory of Physiology and Pharmacology, Federal University of São João del-Rei, Divinópolis, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Abstract

There is a general consensus that a reduction in growth hormone (GH) secretion results in obesity. However, the pathophysiologic role of GH in the metabolism of lipids is yet to be fully understood. The major somatic targets of GH are bones and muscles, but GH stimulates lipolysis and seems to regulate lipid deposition in adipose tissue. Patients with isolated GH deficiency (GHD) have enlarged fat depots due to higher fat cell volume, but their fat cell numbers are lower than those of matched controls. The treatment of patients with GH results in a relative loss of body fat and shifts both fat cell number and fat cell volume toward normal, indicating an adipogenic effect of GH. Adults with GHD are characterized by perturbations in body composition, lipid metabolism, cardiovascular risk profile, and bone mineral density. It is well established that GHD is usually accompanied by an increase in fat accumulation; GH replacement in GHD results in the reduction of fat mass, particularly abdominal fat mass. In addition, abdominal obesity results in a secondary reduction in GH secretion that is reversible with weight loss. However, whereas GH replacement in patients with GHD leads to specific depletion of intra-abdominal fat, administering GH to obese individuals does not seem to result in a consistent reduction or redistribution of body fat. Although administering GH to obese non-GHD subjects has only led to equivocal results, more recent studies indicate that GH still remains a plausible metabolic candidate.

This article looks at the effects of growth hormone on people with a deficiency in growth hormone production. Treating patients with growth hormone deficiency caused fat cells to shrink around the abdominal areas, especially internal abdominal fat (but caused them to gain more fat cells just like normal subjects), although there was a net loss of fat. The fatter the growth deficient people were around the abdomen the lower their growth hormone. When they lost weight the growth hormone released increased. 

Having enough circulating growth hormone in the blood makes it easier to lose weight from the deep visceral fat from the abdominal area. Carrying too visceral fat tended to lower growth hormone production.